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Darkwood is a oldschool, top-down, sandbox survival horror, with RPG and roguelike elements. It features a non-linear, open world with a day and night cycle, very dense atmosphere, brutal and tactical combat, and crafting.

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Today we're gonna talk a bit about the leveling system in Darkwood. You will come across mutated flora & fauna, from which you will be able to harvest it's essence. The more mutated it is, the more essence you will be able to gather. Here's how the menu for this activity looks like:

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Greetings!

Today we're gonna talk a bit about the leveling system in Darkwood. You will come across mutated flora & fauna, from which you will be able to harvest it's essence. The more mutated it is, the more essence you will be able to gather. Here's how the menu for this activity looks like:

levelowanie_menu_01

You select the items you want to "cook", filling up the syringe with essence. Once it's full, you can inject it's contents into your bloodstream, triggering a reaction from your body, enabling you to choose the direction you want to mutate. Most of these cookable items also have other properties and istead of harvesting them for essence, you can use them to heal yourself of wounds, poison, add temporary boosts, or lure creatures with it.

levelowanie_skills_01

By mutating, a set of new random skills or perks will be presented to you, from which you can choose one. Sometimes, you will have to select a negative mutation. These skills range from basic modifiers like attack damage, health and stamina, to additional abilities like new attack types, effects that last for a limited time, or perks that affect how others react to you.

This means that on each playthrough, you will have to adapt your playstyle to the way your character mutates, while having some control over it. For example, it may happen that you'll get to play a tough, strong and fast, but also paranoid and almost deaf character. We find this to play a really big part in replayability, so that each time you start over, you get a unique experience. Also, worth noting is the fact that a part of the essence you have gathered lingers on to your next incarnation when you die.

Keep in mind, however, that injecting too much essence in a short period of time may have also other, mostly dire consequences..

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Gn0meSlice

'dire consequences' you say. Oh dear... ;]

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SinKing
SinKing

Wow, this seems like a very big undertaking. The game mechanics may be limited, but this essence mechanic is quite a beast, I can imagine.

Visually attractive, so far. Some of this sounds a bit complicated for the effects you achieve, but we will see.

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BioDestroyer
BioDestroyer

It seems like a really good leveling system, the concept of mutations is great. I like the fact that sometimes there will be negative mutations, it takes away some of the control from the player, so that it isn't only improvements. Tracking.

The drawing on the menus are awesome btw.

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